EUROPEAN SITUATIONS

Discussion

The Chairman thanked the speakers for their contributions and agreed with the position of the EC, that the EuFMD Commission is mature enough to embrace the new structures and contribute in an effective way to ensure the REMSA system, when developed, has a useful role to play on FMD prevention and response. He considered that the Commission should be one of the main actors to ensure that FMD remained high on the Agenda of regional co-ordination meetings, and to assist, where needed, with technical support to countries.

Conclusions

1. The EuFMD Commission has an important role to play to promote FMD prevention and control capacity in the Europe-Mediterranean region, should continue to work closely and supportively with the RAHC of OIE/FAO in Tunis and Beirut. The process of development of the REMSA network should be closely followed by the Executive Committee; 2. Technical networking on FMD with non-free countries in the region will be to the benefit of all parties involved, and enable sharing of risk information and improved early response to crisis situations.

Item 9 – Technical items: guidance on the use of the new decentralised tests systems in European situations

The position paper (Appendix 20) developed by the Research Group was presented by Dr Eoin Ryan, Ireland, and followed from recommendations made at the 37th Session. The paper reviewed options for decentralised use of virus detection techniques on samples from suspected secondary outbreaks of Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD). These options have recently been expanded by the advent of new tests including disposable lateral flow devices (LFD) for the detection of viral proteins and reusable after disinfection portable RT-PCR equipment for the detection of viral RNA. These devices may be used on infected farms as pen-side tests, in regional, local or mobile laboratories, or in National Reference Laboratories (NRL). Issues highlighted included validation and quality control, containment needs, availability of test devices and reagents, the decision tree for declaring an outbreak, training issues, and provision of samples for subsequent viral characterization.

Discussion

The Chairman thanked the group for the progress to develop the new tools and provide the guidance paper. Discussion points that followed concerned the problem of preclinical diagnosis in herds neighbouring to infected premises; the need for national vs regional stockpiles of tests; the need for serotype specific tests for early warning in countries where multiple serotypes circulate, such as Turkey, and validation of the new tests. In answer, the current tests have not been developed for pre-clinical diagnosis from blood samples although high sensitivity PCR based tests might in future enable this. Serotype specific tests have not been seen as a high priority for the commercial sector, but are demanded from endemic countries, so a gap exists. Test validation is largely complete but comparative testing, with samples from different lesion ages and with persistently infected animals, is required.